


The Witch's Coffin

by mosslynx



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Missing Scene, Oneshot, Pre-Canon, Unhealthy Relationships, anthy's reality-breaking magic powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:27:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosslynx/pseuds/mosslynx
Summary: Anthy, in the immediate aftermath of her sacrifice. (Please read the content warnings in the author's notes).
Relationships: Dios & Himemiya Anthy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	The Witch's Coffin

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Mob violence against a child, graphic descriptions of injury and intense pain, suicide idealation, disassociation, and some hints of an abusive/incestuous relationship (though nothing explicit).

Anthy _screamed_.

Then the swords struck, piercing every inch of her skin, tearing through muscle and sinew, shattering her bones. Then they slid through her throat, into her lungs, and her cries of pain and terror cut off with a strangled gasp.

 _Have to get away,_ Anthy thought, the words coming jumbled and staccato through a haze of red-white pain, _have to run, have to LEAVE, not safe here, it hurts so much, brother help me PLEASE-_ and something shining with a dusky light pulsed to scorching life deep within her, and the shouts and jeers of the crowd began to fade away, until the only sounds left were the screeching of metal on metal, Anthy's tortured half-gasps, and somewhere not too far away, Dios' labored breathing.

The pain didn't recede, but after an eon, Anthy's eyes drifted open. It was bright-too bright, even with no sun to be seen, the floor was white and hard, covered in tiny bumps and holes, and the sky was a static-y gray. Anthy was too tired to question where the soft green grass or the dry, compacted dust or the barn's rotting wood was, and she felt only relief at being somewhere, _anywhere_ else.

It was too bright. While the pain of the light in her eyes barely even registered when compared to the cold steel splitting her every cell in two, when combined with that it was too much. Even when she closed her eyes it was overwhelming.

But-there was a spot of darkness ahead of her. Desperate to escape the blinding light, she pushed at the ground, even as the swords ground against each other and scraped against her bones, even as the rough floor dug into her palms, until at last, the darkness (a hole? a box?) had gotten so close as to swallow most of her field of vision.

Her movements jerky and slow, she reached a hand forward towards the dark. And as it crossed some invisible threshold, the swords melted away. Dropping all hesitation, Anthy threw herself into it, and would have laughed at such sweet relief were the fatigue of her actions not setting in. She collapsed to the ground inside the darkness (it was perfectly smooth and pleasantly cool, and while it held no softness, Anthy couldn’t care less about something so trivial at this point).

Then the single beam of light shining towards her shrank, and vanished. _Oh,_ some ancient part of Anthy realized, as a deep slumber spread through her mind like cold ink and her eyes drifted shut, _this is a coffin._

She couldn’t quite find it in herself to care.

* * *

Something was wrong.

“Anthy… Anthy… Anthy! Please, wake up!”

Something was missing.

Anthy’s eyes fluttered open, and she met Dios’s gaze. “Big… brother?”

“Anthy!” Dios’ words were dripping with relief, and he was cradling Anthy in his arms. “Thank goodness, you’re alright. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”

She blinked slowly, and lifted her arm. Her eyes felt syrupy and her vision wavered. Her arm still had the steel spikes piercing through it, but the pain felt… distant, somehow. Like it was happening to someone else, or in a dream. She let her arm fall back to the ground. It took her a moment to realize that Dios was still talking.

“...place is, but it seems safe for now. Anthy, what _happened?”_ His eyes were overflowing with concern, and something else, too. Anthy didn’t recognize it, but it scared her.

“I-” what _had_ happened? There had been-a barn. Shouting. A crowd? Swords… what else? There had to have been _something_ to explain the vague, awful feeling she had. “I don’t-”

“Whoa-hey, Anthy, don’t cry.” Anthy brought her hand up to her face, and was surprised to find tears streaming down her cheeks. Strange, she didn’t feel that sad, or scared, or… anything (that’s not true, she was horrified and screaming and clawing at the walls of her mind and she was _furious_ at the world for hurting them both and she wrapped that part of herself in smothering velvet and pushed it back into that place where only nightmares lurk and-). Everything felt muffled, blurred, thoughts and feelings dampened as though Anthy were deep underwater.

She felt something brush against her cheek, and realized that Dios was wiping the tears from her eyes. “Don’t cry, Anthy. Something’s been taken from us. And I won’t rest until I get it back, okay?”

Something cold and dark began to germinate within her. Dread, perhaps, or fury?

Anthy forced her face into a smile she didn’t feel. “Thank you, Big Brother.”


End file.
